Britons living in Portugal are struggling to work, travel or even get health care because the authorities there have not issued the biometric document they need post-Brexit, a group representing them told AFP Monday (8 August)
Campaigners said that British nationals were having trouble carrying out basic tasks at home in Portugal for want of the correct document.
“Portugal is the only one (country) left that hasn’t issued the withdrawal agreement biometric card,” said Tig James, co-president of the British in Portugal group.
Two people had been briefly detained at an airport in Germany, and a woman had been refused entry to the Netherlands, she said.
“Now we have people being refused health care, who are being detained in airports, who are awaiting criminal proceedings, who have lost their jobs because they can’t renew their driving licences”.
A spokesman for Portugal’s Immigration and Border Service (SEF) said they had issued provisional documents to some 35,000 British citizens living in Portugal, which remained valid in the country and the rest of the European Union.
The occasional problems raised by the association of British residents in Portugal had been sorted out, the spokesman added.
But Tig James said other countries “don’t recognise these documents that Portugal has done off its own back. It’s that simple”.
Even administrative procedures inside Portugal had become problematic, she added.
“It’s every aspect of the lives of UK nationals that are being affected,” she added.
A British government spokesman told AFP: “Protecting the rights of UK nationals living in Europe is a priority for the UK government.
“We continue to urge the Portuguese Government to complete the process of issuing biometric residency cards to UK nationals living legally in Portugal without further delay.
“Portugal must immediately and fully implement the Withdrawal Agreement commitments it signed up to in 2018, so UK nationals have the security they need.”
Portugal’s Government has been planning to overhaul the SEF since 2021, dividing its activities among other parts of the state service, but the reforms have run into several setbacks.
Source: euractiv.com
